Popular Podcasts

Coffee Break Spanish, available on Spotify, has been around since October 2008 when their first podcast Spanish beginner lesson - “Saying how you are feeling” - was aired. Since then, they have created a considerable (and still growing) collection of 15-20 minutes podcasts covering various aspects of the Spanish language and fitting perfectly into a typical coffee break.  

How is this podcast series structured? The level of language difficulty progresses with each lesson, and the courses increase in difficulty as the seasons’ number progress. Season 1 podcasts are for beginners, season 2 for intermediate, season 3 for upper-intermediate, and season 4 for advanced students of Spanish. Following this pattern, it is easy to find the right level or start from the beginning to review the basics. 

With Coffee Break Spanish, not everything is about formal lessons. They also feature additional podcasts focused on more casual topics: travel diaries, an audio magazine, an Expresso section, etc. 

Your host for these conversational classes is Mark, an experienced language teacher with an exquisite Spanish accent. He’ll have several native and non-native co-hosts (all of whom speak Spanish fluently) throughout the different episodes, and the best of all is that the conversations build upon each other!

The topics you’ll listen to are as varied as they can be. One day you can learn about finding your way around town or ordering a coffee, and the next about Federico García Lorca or a sunken treasure!

Pro-tip: Have a look at the Blog section if you have the chance to visit the website.

Pros:

• professional and charismatic host
• well-structured and consistent
• engaging episodes
• important learning value

Cons:

• only available on Spotify

LightSpeed Spanish is not just a series of podcasts. It is a complete website offering Spanish audio/video lessons, immersion courses, helpsheets, flashcards, and lots of other materials that every learner will surely appreciate. 

The website creators, as well as the podcast hosts, are Gordon Smith and Cynthia Durán, a couple of experienced teachers who clearly know how to do their job well. The series of free podcasts they developed are carefully designed to take your Spanish forward at LightSpeed! 

Not sure where to start? Check out the lesson table of contents and pick the right level (Absolute Beginners, Early Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate, and Advanced) and the topic you are interested in. Or, if you prefer, start from the very beginning and follow the whole series one episode at a time. As you move forward, you will hear fewer and fewer explanations in English and be able to understand longer bits of conversational Spanish. 

Great job, Cynthia and Gordon!

Pros:

• free Android and iOS app available
• covers all the essential contents for each level
• well-structured to allow progress monitoring
• additional materials available

Cons:

• not all episodes have video material

Learning Spanish by Listening to the current news is such a fantastic, time-saving, and multi-benefit idea, especially considering that one of the most frequent complaints students have about Spanish lessons content is the lack of relevance and relation to their lives. 

The folks at News in Slow Spanish by Linguistica 360 have it all sorted out. Their weekly podcasts are divided into two sections: in the first one, they discuss the most important world news, and in the second one, they cover selected Spanish vocabulary groups or grammar aspects. All this at a wonderfully slow pace, which will allow even an elementary student to follow most of what is said. 

Engaging topics, a perfect balance between conversational Spanish and the grammar/vocabulary structures, plus dedicated and entertaining hosts turn this podcast project into an effective study tool for nearly anyone wishing to improve their Spanish. 

Apart from listening to News in Slow Spanish on Spotify, you can also venture to their website. There, you’ll find the same podcasts grouped by levels, as well as an additional category of materials under the name COURSES (grammar, expressions, and the “Get Up To Speed” introductory course for beginners).

Pros:

• new episodes added weekly
• relatable and useful content
• available on Spotify + own website + app
• Latino and Spain accents available
• additional Spanish grammar and vocabulary courses 

Cons:

• full access to all materials only with subscription (USD 22.90 monthly)

Duolingo is one of the most popular and recognizable brands in the language learning industry, most famous for its free application that helps people worldwide practice a wide array of languages. The Duolingo podcast series - available on Spotify, Apple, and Google Podcast - is a perfect addition to the Spanish course they offer. 

Each of the 20-ish-minute episodes, introduced and guided by an English-speaking narrator, tells a short story in Spanish with a catchy title, such as “A tattoo therapy,” “A great Argentinian robbery,” or  “A frog called Romeo.” Creative titles and imaginative storylines are bound to attract your attention. With the narrator’s help, you’ll be able to summarize the stories bit by bit and to work on the key expressions. 

Judging by the language difficulty, Duolingo Spanish podcast is most suitable for listeners with an intermediate level of Spanish who want to practice Spanish in a fun and playful way. 

Pros:

• 100% free
• multi-channel availability
• interesting story-telling narrative 
• professionally made with great music and sound effects
• transcripts available on the Duolingo website

Cons:

• irregular frequency of new episodes
• questions at the end of each story to check the listener’s understanding would be great

Another great Podcast series that uses storytelling to boost Spanish proficiency is Unlimited Spanish. It is hosted by Òscar Pellus and follows the same methodology (Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling) as his widely appraised Spanish courses.

After listening to a few selected episodes of Oscar’s podcast, I am in awe of his beautiful Spanish accent, engaging personality, and unquestionable talent to explain even the most mundane linguistic concept in such a fascinating way that makes minutes fly by without one even realizing it. 

With well over 200 episodes (and counting), millions of downloads, and dozens of favorable student testimonials, Unlimited Spanish is clearly one of the top market players when it comes to Spanish podcasting. Keep in mind, though, that Oscar’s stories use no English and are targeted mainly at intermediate students who wish to take a quick extra step to real proficiency. Lower-level students might find them a bit too challenging. 

Pros:

• charismatic host with a unique storytelling talent
• great content to practice B2-C1 listening comprehension 
• transcripts and mp3 download available

Cons

• no materials for lower-level students
• only website availability

If you are from the US, you are probably very familiar with an NPR radio style that features stories told by regular people, with their local accents, slang, and communicative skills. Radio Ambulante follows the same approach, giving voice to Spanish speaking community from across Latin America. 

Radio Ambulante has been around since 2011 and has grown into a fully professional project, with a whole team of dedicated contributors. Their podcasts are available both on NPR (with an exclusive contract) and on various applications (Spotify and Google Podcast included). I

The content on Radio Ambulante goes way beyond Spanish learning. It showcases the best quality narrative journalism in a collection of 10 full seasons of episodes that cover topics that really matter (health, discrimination, science, social rights, etc.) A convenient filtering tool, grouping podcasts according to their length, topic, season, and country, will help you quickly find exactly what you need/want. f

The Lupa app that Radio Ambulante has launched in cooperation with Jiveworld takes the listening experience to the next level and allows you to individually adjust the degree of podcast difficulty, which maximizes the learning efficiency. 

Pros:

• podcast with the highest-quality radio narrative
• real Spanish in different Latin American versions
• hundreds of 100% free episodes
• useful filtering tool 
• accelerated learning with the Lupa app
• articles in English and Spanish available to complement podcast episodes

Cons

• no transcripts available

When using podcasts to supplement your language learning, you’ll most likely pick those that ensure a new episode is available within a short time and on a regular basis. If you have to wait weeks or even months before it comes out, the podcast kind of loses its whole educational purpose, doesn’t it? You can’t learn a language with such long pauses on the way.

Considering this vital aspect, Hoy Hablamos appears as a perfect podcast for frequent contact, bite-size contact with Spanish. A new episode is uploaded daily, from Monday and Friday, which - up to now -translates into about 150 hours of audio content!  

The daily podcast episodes cover an array of topics: news in Spanish, Spanish culture and traditions, influential people in the history of Spain, but also more casual issues, like tips for a successful date, a potato tortilla recipe, etc. What completes this collection is an additional series of grammar (beginner to intermediate) and premium podcasts. 

Are you worried that posting new content every day might affect the podcast quality? Luckily, it’s not the case with Hoy Hablamos. Every episode is well-researched and professionally recorded, with high sound quality. 

Pros:

• hours and hours of exciting and educational content
• additional grammar podcasts

Cons:

• transcripts, explanations, and exercises only for subscribed users ( USD 9.95 per month)

If you like language learning podcasts, speak intermediate Spanish and are a fan of the Colombian accent, make sure to check out Españolistos on SoundCloud. 

The podcast hosts, Andrea from Colombia and Nate from the US, work hard on providing listeners with exciting and practical conversational topics for each 30-minute episode. At times, they invite guests for an interview, which brings more variety to the content and shows yet another way of using Spanish.

Listening to opinion exchange and lively dialogues almost entirely in Spanish, you are bound to improve your grammar, vocabulary, and overall comprehension skills. As Andrea corrects Nate’s occasional pronunciation mistakes, typical for an American learner, she offers valuable tips that you can also try to apply.

Pros:

• new episodes added about once a week
• engaging conversational style 
• cost-free availability on SoundCloud
• download enabled

Cons

• no transcripts or additional exercises 

Does your significant other come from a Spanish-speaking country? If so, listening to the bilingual couple (Liz from Colombia and Rob from England) talking about their life on Spanish Obsessed will show you all the pros and cons of such a bi-national relation. 

Spanish Obsessed podcast is, as the hosts mention it themselves, in slow Spanish and aimed at intermediate students who have already developed certain listening comprehension skills and have enough vocabulary. If you don’t fall into the intermediate student category just yet, but appreciate Liz and Rob’s enthusiasm for teaching and are touched by how romantic they are with each other, you might want to take a look at the several Spanish courses they’ve developed.

What do Rob and Liz talk about in their podcasts? Anything from coffee to plastic surgery, to white lies, to addictions. Each episode also features bits of grammar, pronunciation, and culture, both Colombian and British. You won’t be disappointed!

Pros:

• enthusiastic hosts who love what they do
• good length to hear the whole episode without interruptions
• conversational approach with an interesting choice of topics
• each episode contains functional grammar and pronunciation tips 
• part of a larger teaching project

Cons

• only available on Apple podcasts
• no transcripts or supplementary materials

Podcasts made by couples tend to be very natural and pleasant to listen to, conversational and very “real-life”. So is “Notes in Spanish,” hosted by Marina and Ben (from Spain and England respectively). First of all, they are among the most experienced ones on the market: they have been podcasting since 2005. Online Spanish teaching is their full-time job, and they dedicate lots of time to prepare their content. Favorable press reviews and over 40 million downloads are the best proof of the quality of their podcasts. 

With time, they have developed five podcast series aimed at different proficiency levels and focused on various Spanish language aspects. You can pick among Inspired Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced (1,2, 3 and conversations), Gold Spanish (which includes English analysis after each episode), and 3 Words for Ascuas. Each series is divided into several seasons - do the math and imagine the amount of material you can find on Notes in Spanish!

One thing to keep in mind: although this incredible audio material is offered absolutely for free, the related materials (the key vocabulary and grammar from each show, a full transcript, and translation of the conversations, vocabulary building exercises, and additional Spanish phrases) have a cost (USD 90 for every level, or a pack with all the materials at USD 345).

Pros:

• professional and “full-time” Spanish teaching project
• designed for different proficiency levels
• thoroughly prepared complementary exercises
• available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,  Stitcher, and RSS Feed

Cons:

• a sample of the pdf materials would be useful

Spanish Language Coach is a personal project of Cesar, a certified Spanish teacher as a foreign language, based in London. As he says, he has the best job in the world: he gets to help people speak Spanish and show them some of the culture and traditions from his native country - Spain. 

Spanish Language Coach podcast is meant for intermediate students and features 15+ minute episodes recorded entirely in Spanish with a beautiful Spaniard accent. Each episode discusses a selected topic, presenting the most relevant words and expressions in a logical context. 

What I personally like the most about Cesar’s podcast is his choice of topics: “What is success?” “Social classes in Spain,” “My carnivore mother and vegetarian me,” or “Anxiety” - they are relevant, absorbing, and great for discussion and analysis. Some of the episodes are available on Youtube, with embedded subtitles in Spanish. You can also obtain full transcripts of all the podcasts for free by registering on the Spanish language Coach website. 

Pros:

• interesting and well-developed topics, excellent to practice listening comprehension
• free transcripts
• 100% in Spanish for intermediate students to fully immerse in the language
• available on Spotify with selected episodes uploaded on Youtube
• possibility to book online classes with Cesar 

Cons:

• We wish he’d post more often

How to Spanish is another excellent podcast for everyone who wishes to practice the Mexican accent. It is hosted by David and Ana, who every week upload a new episode full of useful Spanish vocabulary as well as worth-knowing details about Mexican culture and traditions. They use almost no English and speak at an average speed, which means that the podcast is best suited for intermediate and advanced students. 

How to Spanish offers a collection of free episodes lasting a little under half an hour each and divided into several categories (culture, grammar, storytime, history, expressions with a letter, and discover music in Spanish). You can find them on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Youtube, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Patreon. 

The How to Spanish podcast uses a Patreon membership (minimum set fee) system for everyone who wishes to gain access to supplementary materials such as an interactive transcript for every episode, along with an explanation of the new grammar structures it introduces, a vocabulary list, as well as listening comprehension questions. Patreon members can also benefit from additional exclusive content.  The average cost of unblocking the desired content is 2 to 5 dollars. 

Pros: 

• regular weekly episodes
• likable and charismatic hosts
• a great source of information about Mexican culture and language
• practical materials to improve Spanish comprehension skills 
• high-quality additional content (free samples available)
• podcast available on Youtube in a video format
• reasonable pricing

Cons:

• introducing other accents and more hosts could help make the podcast even more interesting

There is not much time for Spanish in your life, yet you don’t want to lose touch with this language? In that case, you should definitely give podcastspanish.com a chance. Short, 3-minute episodes that resemble a casual conversation between two friends.

Such bite-sized dialogues will not only help sharpen your listening skill and move past the intermediate level but also entertain you with a variety of topics that can always prove useful in everyday life.

Podcastspanish.com is divided into three levels (elementary, intermediate, upper-intermediate/advanced) with a couple of dozen episodes each. The podcast follows the usual pattern of “you can listen and download to the audio for free, but I’ll charge you a little for additional pdf materials). If you want to get access to those, you will have to consider subscribing, which costs 18 euros every 3 months. 

Having taken a look at the sample materials I believe they are totally worth the money. The worksheets contain both general and specific comprehension questions and the vocabulary sheets help to retain and practice new words and expressions. Once you’ve done all the exercises you can listen to the podcast again to see if you can understand it even better this time. 

Pros:

• bite-size content for busy people who want to keep in touch with Spanish
• entertaining conversations on a variety of topics
• additional practice materials available for subscribed users

Cons:

• only available on their website

Complete Spanish podcast is part of the Language Transfer project based on an avant-garde “thinking method” of learning Spanish developed by Mihalis Eleftheriou. He is the founder of the online platform and the author of an acclaimed book describing his novel teaching approach. Judging by the enthusiastic reviews by students, this guy’s approach seems way more thoughtful, logical, and systematic than the traditional language education model.

The complete Spanish podcast course is 100% free and available on SoundCloud and Youtube. You can also listen to it on a dedicated LT app (both for iOS and Android). In every episode, Mihalis guides students into a progressively more complete grasp of Spanish by giving them tips on how to use their logical thinking skills in that process. 

Mind you, Complete Spanish is NOT a conversational podcast. It is a gradual introduction of grammar patterns in a way that helps remember, understand and apply them easier. 

“Just engage, pause, think and answer out loud, the rest will take care of itself!” is what Complete Spanish promises. If you’ve been trying to learn Spanish with the conventional methods and haven’t really made much progress, you should definitely give Mihalis and his podcast a chance. 

Pros:

• entirely free
• a novel teaching method that claims to be way more successful than the conventional one
• Language Transfer app for a more convenient listening

Cons:

• targeted only on English speakers, other base language versions not available

The last on my list is Charlas Hispanas, which is the Latin American version of a language podcast by the previously-reviewed “Hoy Hablamos”. Hoy Hablamos follows the same daily schedule and is just as professionally made. 

Being a “daughter” project, the Hispanic version of the podcast is a bit poorer in content, but given the frequency with which new episodes are added, it already has lots of useful material. 

Access to additional content and exercises is granted for premium users and the cost of a monthly subscription is USD 9.95 per month, or USD 95 yearly.

Pros:

• benefits from the experience and the know-how of the “mother” project
• daily episodes allow uninterrupted practice and quicker progress 

Cons

• access to sample materials before paying the subscription would surely be appreciated